Categorie archieven: Amerikaanse geschiedenis

American history, Amerikaanse geschiedenis, Amerikaanse historicus, Biografie

Davids S. Brown – In the Arena Theodore Roosevelt Biography

Davids S. Brown In the Arena Theodore Roosevelt Biography review and information book about 26th president of the United States. Scribner will publish the biography of president Theodore Roosevelt, written by David S. Brown , on December 2, 2025. Here you can read information about the content of the book, the author and the publication.

Davids S. Brown In the Arena Theodore Roosevelt Biography reviews

  • “A study of Theodore Roosevelt that doesn’t shy from the less palatable sides of his views and character.” (Kirkus Reviews)
  • “A magnificent book that puts Theodore Roosevelt back into the context of his times while revealing his relevance to our own. With the energy that brought the Rough Rider to the heights of both San Juan and American politics, David S. Brown packs this great American story into a one-volume biography for the ages.” (Jonathan Horn, author)
  • “In the Arena gives us what no other book on Theodore Roosevelt has accomplished: critical perspective relevant for today. Written with heart and superlative skill, David S. Brown details the personal experiences that molded Roosevelt, and in turn shaped the future of domestic and global politics. Brown is a fearless biographer, unafraid to dive into the contradictions and dark moments that make up the complexity of Roosevelt’s life and legacy. Brimming with insight, In the Arena brilliantly weaves together an intimate portrait of Roosevelt with the fate of the United States.” (Nathalia Holt, author)

David S. Brown In the Arena Theodore Roosevelt Biography

In the Arena

Theodore Roosevelt in War, Peace, and Revolution

  • Author: David S. Brown (United States)
  • Book type: Biography
  • Publisher: Scribner
  • To be released: December 2, 202
  • Length: 496 pages
  • Format: hardback / ebook / audiobook
  • Prize: $ 31.00 / $ 16.99 / $ 29.99
  • Order book from: Amazon / Bol

Blurb of the president Theodore Roosevelt biography

A captivating new biography of Teddy Roosevelt, exploring the life of America’s 26th president and his pivotal role in shaping the dawn of the American Century.

Theodore Roosevelt was one of America’s most fascinating presidents—a complex man both publicly and privately. In this sweeping biography, historian David S. Brown takes us on an electrifying journey through Theodore Roosevelt’s life—from his privileged New York upbringing to his transformative presidency that reshaped America’s role on the global stage.

In the Arena vividly brings Roosevelt to life as a man of striking contradictions: a rugged outdoorsman with a love for books, a war hero who earned a Nobel Peace Prize, and a larger-than-life figure whose energy seemed boundless. Through compelling storytelling and meticulous research, Brown explores the pivotal moments that forged Roosevelt’s indomitable spirit, from battling childhood asthma to witnessing the deaths of both his mother and his wife on the same day, to wrangling cattle in the West and preserving 150 million acres of national land.

Challenging traditional views, In the Arena offers a fresh perspective on Roosevelt’s groundbreaking political legacy, including his Square Deal policies that laid the groundwork for modern social welfare programs. It also unpacks his bold foreign policy, which expanded America’s global influence and set the stage for its rise as a world power. Brown argues that Roosevelt’s charisma and performative presidency helped bridge the old Victorian values with the new industrial age, capturing the attention of the middle-class and making him a leader that the people loved.

David S. Brown was born September 29, 1966 in Troy, Ohio. He teaches history at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. He is the author of eight books, including In the Arena: Theodore Roosevelt in War, Peace, and Revolution; A Hell of a Storm: The Battle for Kansas, the End of Compromise, and the Coming of the Civil War; The First Populist: The Defiant Life of Andrew Jackson; The Last American Aristocrat: The Brilliant Life and Improbable Education of Henry Adams; and biographies of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Richard Hofstadter.

Matching books

Amerikaanse geschiedenis, Amerikaanse schrijfster, Feminisme, Feministische boeken, Vrouwengeschiedenis

Tarpley Hitt – Barbieland

Tarpley Hitt Barbieland review and information of the book with the Unauthorized History of Barbie. Atria Books will publish the book by Tarpley Hitt about Barbie, on December 2, 2025. Here you can read information about the content of the book, the author and the publication.

Tarpley Hitt Barbieland review

  • “A must-read take on Barbie’s backstory that gives us all the good weirdness we need. Barbieland marks the arrival of a brilliant new voice on the American nonfiction scene.” (John Jeremiah Sullivan, author of Pulphead)
  • “Barbie’s story embodies all the contradictions of women’s lives—and the perils of our corporate and financial order. Barbieland is eye-opening, provocative, surprising, and always, always fun.” (Helaine Olen, bestselling author of Pound Foolish)
  • “More than the story of a toy, Barbieland is the story of the twentieth century. As fun as it is informative—you’ll never look at a doll the same way.” (Malcolm Harris, author of Palo Alto)
  • “Toy mania. Journalist Hitt makes a lively book debut with a dive into the creation, marketing, and meaning of the iconic Barbie doll.” (Kirkus)

Tarpley Hitt Barbieland

Barbieland

Unauthorized History of Barbie

  • Author: Tarpley Hitt (United States)
  • Book type: cultural history of Barbie
  • Publisher: Atria Books
  • To be released: December 2, 2025
  • Length: 352 pages
  • Format: hardcover / ebook / audiobook
  • Prize: $ 30.00 / $ 14.99 / $25.99
  • Order book from: Amazon / Bol

Blurb of the book about Barbie by Tarpley Hitt

The explosive true story of Barbie and what Mattel has done to keep her on top.

In June of 1952, German publishing tycoon Axel Springer was sending a new paper to print: a four-page broadsheet that almost ready, save for a narrow blank on the second page. With minutes to spare, Springer commissioned a one-block cartoon of a petite blonde with a predilection for rich men. That blonde was named “Lilli.” But in a span of seven short years, she would be reborn in plastic, across an ocean, and under a different name: Barbara Millicent Roberts.

If Barbie began as a blank space, the world has spent seven decades filling it in. No doll has elicited more adoration from fans, more hatred from detractors, and more eyerolls from the indifferent. To boosters, she is the ultimate symbol of unabashed girlhood, an 11.5-inch figurine who shot to the moon before American women could get credit cards, an evolving illustration that, per one tagline, “we girls can do anything.” To critics, she represents an inane vision of femininity that was going out of style just years after she was “born”—an homage to impossible body proportions, an emblem of Eurocentric beauty standards, a bimbo built on an empire of polyethylene. For everyone else, Barbie is to dolls what Xerox is to copy machines, or Kleenex is to tissues. She is, for better or for worse, an American icon.

Barbie’s conquest over the toy market did not happen by accident. It is the byproduct of meticulous marketing, occasional backstabbing, squadrons of designers with strong opinions on coral lip shades, and covert corporate maneuvers—many of which replicate, in miniature, the economic trajectory of the country Barbie seems to represent.

Tarpley Hitt is a journalist in New York, New York, where she is an editor at and contributor to The Drift magazine. She has previously reported on culture and money for The Daily Beast and Gawker, and her work has also appeared in The New York Times, Bookforum, The Paris Review, The Guardian, Air Mail, Deseret Magazine, and Miami New Times.

Matching books

Amerikaanse geschiedenis, Amerikaanse historicus, Amerikaanse journalist, Amerikaanse politiek

Walter Isaacson – The Greatest Sentence Ever Written

Walter Isaacson The Greatest Sentence Ever Written review, recensie en informatie boek over de Declaration of Independence. Op 18 november 2025 verschijnt bij Simon & Schuster het boek van Walter Isaacson over de Amerikaanse onafhankelijkheidsverklaring. Er is geen Nederlandse vertaling van het boek verkrijgbaar.

Walter Isaacson The Greatest Sentence Ever Written review en recensie

Als er in de media een boekbespreking, recensie of review verschijnt van The Greatest Sentence Ever Written, het boek over de Declaration of Independence, geschreven door Walter Isaacson, dan besteden we er op deze pagina aandacht aan.

Walter Isaacson The Greatest Sentence Ever Written

The Greatest Sentence Ever Written

  • Auteur: Walter Isaacson (Verenigde Staten)
  • Soort boek: Declaration of Independence boek
  • Taal: Engels
  • Uitgever: Simon & Schuster
  • Verschijnt: 18 november 2025
  • Omvang: 80 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: gebonden boek / ebook / luisterboek
  • Prijs: $ 20.00 / $ 10.99 / $ 9.99
  • Boek bestellen bij: Amazon 

Flaptekst van het boek van Walter Isaacson over de Declaration of Independence

America’s bestselling biographer reveals the origins of the most revolutionary sentence in the Declaration of Independence, the one that defines who we are as Americans—and explains how it should shape our politics today.

To celebrate America’s 250th anniversary, Walter Isaacson takes readers on a fascinating deep dive into the creation of one of history’s most powerful sentences: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Drafted by Thomas Jefferson and edited by Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, this line lays the foundation for the American Dream and defines the common ground we share as a nation.

Isaacson unpacks its genius, word by word, illuminating the then-radical concepts behind it. Readers will gain a fresh appreciation for how it was drafted to inspire unity, equality, and the enduring promise of America. With clarity and insight, he reveals not just the power of these words but describes how, in these polarized times, we can use them to restore an appreciation for our common values.

Walter Isaacson is born on 20 May 1952 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is the bestselling author of biographies of Elon Musk, Jennifer Doudna, Leonardo da Vinci, Steve Jobs, Benjamin Franklin, and Albert Einstein. He is a professor of history at Tulane and was CEO of the Aspen Institute, chair of CNN, and editor of Time. He was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2023.

Bijpassende boeken

Amerikaanse geschiedenis, Geschiedenisboeken, Indianen

Tahir Vladi – De verovering van Noord-Amerika

Tahir Vladi De verovering van Noord-Amerika door de ogen van de inheemse volkeren recensie en informatie geschiedenisboek. Op 15 december 2025 verschijnt het boek van Tahir Vladi over de geschiedenis van Amerika. Hier lees je informatie over de inhoud van het boek, de auteur en over de uitgave.

Tahir Vladi De verovering van Noord-Amerika door de ogen van de inheemse volkeren recensie

Als er in de media een boekbespreking, review of recensie verschijnt van De verovering van Noord-Amerika door de ogen van de inheemse volkeren, geschreven door Tahir Vladi, dan besteden we er op deze pagina aandacht aan.

Tahir Vladi De verovering van Noord-Amerika

De verovering van Noord-Amerika

door de ogen van de inheemse volkeren

  • Auteur: Tahir Vladi
  • Soort boek: Amerikaanse geschiedenis
  • Uitgever: Noordboek
  • Verschijnt: 15 december 2025
  • Omvang: 128 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: paperback
  • Prijs: € 19,90
  • Boek bestellen bij: Boekenwereld / Bol / Libris

Flaptekst boek over de verovering van Noord-Amerika

Wij kennen maar één kant van de geschiedenis van Amerika: die van de Europese kolonisator. Dit boek beschrijft de andere kant. We leren de Amerikaanse geschiedenis – met name die van Noord-Amerika – kennen door de bril van de inheemse volkeren. De verovering van Noord-Amerika begint in 1492, als de kolonisatie van Amerika op gang komt. De inheemse bevolking wordt bewust besmet met dodelijke ziekten, verplaatst, achtergesteld en deels geassimileerd. De inheemse volkeren en culturen overleven hun bijnavernietiging, maar de effecten van deze kolonisatie zijn tot op de dag van vandaag merkbaar.

Tahir Vladi is geboren in 1978) studeerde American Studies aan de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen en is gespecialiseerd in de geschiedenis van de inheemse volkeren van het Amerikaanse continent.

Bijpassende boeken

Amerikaanse geschiedenis, Amerikaanse politiek

Benjamin Franklin – De autobiografie

Benjamin Franklin De autobiografie recensie en informatie over de inhoud van het boek uit 1791 van Amerikaanse politicus en een van de Founding Fathers. Op 11 november 2025 verschijnt bij Uitgeverij Noordboek de Nederlandse vertaling van The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Hier lees je informatie over de inhoud van het boek, de auteur en over de uitgave.

Benjamin Franklin De autobiografie recensie

Als er in de media een boekbespreking, review of recensie verschijnt van de autobiografie van Benjamin Franklin, dan besteden we er op deze pagina aandacht aan.

Benjamin Franklin De autobiografie

De autobiografie

  • Auteur: Benjamin Franklin (Verenigde Staten)
  • Soort boek: politieke autobiografie
  • Origineel: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (1791)
  • Uitgever: Noordboek
  • Verschijnt: 11 november 2025
  • Omvang: 256 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: paperback
  • Prijs: € 22,90
  • Boek bestellen bij: Bol / Libris

Flaptekst van het boek van Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin was gouverneur van de staat Pennsylvania en een van de ondertekenaars van de Amerikaanse Onafhankelijkheidsverklaring. Hij maakte zich sterk voor de afschaffing van de slavernij. Hij was een succesvol schrijver, uitgever, diplomaat, filosoof, uitvinder en experimenteel wetenschapper. Beroemd is zijn poging om met een vlieger de bliksem te geleiden.

Franklin startte zijn carrière als drukkersknecht en klom op tot staatsman. Toen hij in 1776 Frankrijk bezocht, stonden juichende menigten hem op te wachten. Men beschouwde hem als het toonbeeld van de gelukkige en optimistische Verlichtingsmens.

Benjamin Franklin is geboren op 17 januari 1706 in Boston. Hij was een veelzijdig mens en behoorde tot de zogenaamde Founding Fathers van de Verenigde Staten. Naast politiek denker en diplomaat was hij ook uitvinder. Hij bedacht onder meer bifocale brillenglazen en de bliksemafleider. Hij wees als eerste op het bestaan van golfstromen en ontwikkelde een eigen theorie over elektriciteit. Hij overleed op 17 april 1790 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, waar hij ook begraven is, en werd 84 jaar oud.

Bijpassende boeken

Amerikaanse geschiedenis, Amerikaanse politiek, Verenigde Staten

Laura K. Field – Furious Minds

Laura K. Field Furious Minds review, recensie en informatie boek over MAGA nieuw rechts en Donald Trump in Amerika. Op 6 november 2025 verschijnt bij Princeton University Press boek van Laura K. Field, de Amerikaanse politieke theoreticus en schrijfster over de Make America Great Again. Er is geen Nederlandse vertaling van het boek verkrijgbaar.

Laura K. Field Furious Minds review en recensie

Als er in de media een boekbespreking, review en recensie verschijnt van Furious Minds, The Making of the MAGA New Right, geschreven door Laura K. Field, dan besteden we er op deze pagina aandacht aan.

Laura K. Field Furious Minds

Furious Minds

The Making of the MAGA New Right

  • Auteur: Laura K. Field (Verenigde Staten)
  • Soort boek: Amerikaanse politiek
  • Taal: Engels
  • Uitgever: Princeton University Press
  • Verschijnt: 4 november 2025
  • Omvang: 432 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: $ 35,00
  • Boek bestellen bij: Amazon / Bol / Libris

Flaptekst boek over MAGA nieuw rechts in Amerika

The story of the radical conservative intellectual movement shaping Donald Trump’s agenda—and how it threatens American freedoms, values, and democracy.

Donald Trump is not a big thinker, but his 2016 presidential victory presented a grand opportunity for people who are, and it set off a radicalization and reconfiguration of the American conservative intellectual world. In Furious Minds, Laura Field, who spent close to a decade in conservative academic circles, chronicles the rise of the New Right—the network of academics, public intellectuals, and influencers who provide ideological fuel to Trumpism. This movement includes figures such as Patrick Deneen, Christopher Rufo, Peter Thiel, and JD Vance. Their agenda is built to last, and it has dire long-term implications for liberal democracy.

The New Right has precedents in American history, but it is distinct for its youthfulness, misogyny, and extraordinary successes—most notably the elevation of Vance to the vice presidency. The movement—which draws together associates of the right-wing Claremont Institute, National Conservatives, Postliberals, and the Hard Right—advocates nationalist economics, tight borders, isolationism, and reactionary social values. It helped to strategize January 6th and created Project 2025. But above all, the New Right is engaged in a vast culture war against modern liberal pluralism. It is determined to harness state power and use it in new, illiberal ways, from college campuses to the international scene—all driven by the fantasy of restoring a pure America.

Incisive and urgent, Furious Minds tells the story of the thinkers of the New Right—and their powerful assault on American freedoms, values, and ideals.

Bijpassende boeken

American history, Amerikaans historicus, Amerikaanse geschiedenis, Verenigde Staten

American history books

American history books. What new books on US history are being published? What are the best new books on the history of the United States? What are the topics covered in th book? Who is the author of the history book?

American history books

The history of the United States, still considered by many to be the most powerful country in the world, naturally captures the imagination. It’s no wonder, then, that a lot of books on American history are published.

What are good and special new books on American history?

Below you can find a list of new history books about America. The books are categorized by publication date.

Tarpley Hitt Barbieland reviewBarbieland

Unauthorized History of Barbie

  • Author: Tarpley Hitt (United States)
  • Book type: cultural history of Barbie
  • Publisher: Atria Books
  • To be released: December 2, 2025
  • Length: 352 pages
  • Format: hardcover / ebook / audiobook
  • Prize: $ 30.00 / $ 14.99 / $25.99
  • Order book from: Amazon / Bol
  • Content: If Barbie began as a blank space, the world has spent seven decades filling it in. No doll has elicited more adoration from fans, more hatred from detractors, and more eyerolls from the indifferent. To boosters, she is the ultimate symbol of unabashed girlhood, an 11.5-inch figurine who shot to the moon before American women could get credit cards, an evolving illustration that, per one tagline…read on >

Matching books

Top image: Mount Rushmore (u-trek, Unsplash)

Amerikaanse geschiedenis, Biografie, Slavernij

Angela F. Murphy – Jermain Wesley Loguen biografie

Angela F. Murphy Jermain Wesley Loguen biografie review, recensie en informatie boek over de koning van Underground Railroad. Op 28 oktober 2025 verschijnt bij Yale University Press in de reeks Black Lives de biografie van abolitionist Jermain Wesley Loguen. Het boek is geschreven door Angela F. Murphy. Een Nederlandse vertaling van het boek is niet verkrijgbaar.

Angela F. Murphy Jermain Wesley Loguen biografie review en recensie

  • “For too long, Loguen’s incredible activism, courage, and contributions to Black freedom have been understudied. For his life, we owe Loguen a great debt. For Angela Murphy’s painstaking scholarship, we owe deep gratitude.” (Kellie Carter Jackson)
  • “Angela F. Murphy, author of the definitive study of the ‘Jerry Rescue,’ has written a superb biography of a leader of that struggle, the Reverend Jermain Loguen, himself a fugitive slave from middle Tennessee.” (R.J.M. Blackett)
  • “Murphy shines a brilliant spotlight on a vital but underappreciated abolitionist. This is the definitive account of a defiant fugitive who sought, for himself and others, a land for the free and homes for the brave.” (W. Caleb McDaniel)

Angela F. Murphy Jermain Wesley Loguen biografie

Jermain Wesley Loguen

Defiant Fugitive

  • Auteur: Angela F. Murphy (Verenigde Staten)
  • Soort boek: biografie
  • Taal: Engels
  • Uitgever: Yale University Press
  • Reeks: Black Lives
  • Verschijnt: 28 oktober 2025
  • Omvang: 312 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: gebonden boek / ebook
  • Prijs: $ 30,00
  • Boek bestellen bij: Amazon / Bol

Flaptekst van de biografie van Jermain Wesley Loguen

A gripping biography of a man who escaped slavery to become an influential abolitionist, famously known as the King of the Underground Railroad.

Jermain Wesley Loguen (1813–1872) was a fugitive from slavery, an abolitionist, and a minister, teacher, and political activist. He worked alongside Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, and his home in Syracuse, New York, was among the most publicized Underground Railroad stations in the northern states. Loguen’s political commitments in the years before the Civil War were carried out at great personal risk, for he had liberated himself from slavery in Tennessee and was in constant danger of being captured and reenslaved under the Fugitive Slave Law. Defiantly, however, he refused to purchase his own freedom, an act that he believed would have legitimized the rights of slaveholders. In addition to aiding fellow fugitives from slavery, Loguen worked tirelessly to promote Black equality and uplift throughout upstate New York and Canada. After Emancipation, he extended his work to aid freedpeople in the South and to advocate for Black equality on a national scale.

In this engaging study, Angela F. Murphy follows Loguen from his early years through his transformation into one of the brightest stars in the constellation of abolitionists and reformers in New York.

Angela F. Murphy is a professor in the Department of History at Texas State University. She is the author of The Jerry Rescue: The Fugitive Slave Law, Northern Rights, and the American Sectional Crisis. She lives in Wimberley, Texas.

Bijpassende boeken

Amerikaanse geschiedenis, Fotoboek, Ruimtevaart, Verenigde Staten

J.L. Pickering & John Bisney – Apollo 7 in Photographs

J.L. Pickering & John Bisney Apollo 7 in Photographs  review, recensie en informatie nieuw ruimtevaartboek over de eerste bemande vlucht met het ruimtevaartuig. Op 28 oktober 2025 verschijnt bij Schiffer Publishing het deel 2 in de reeks The Apollo Photo Archive over de Apollo 1 die op 11 oktober 1968 werd gelanceerd en in een baan om de aarde werd gebracht. De astronauten Wally Schirra (commandant), Donn Eisele (piloot), Walter Cunningham (piloot maanlander) waren aan boord van de Apollo 7. Ze landden veilig op 22 oktober 1968 na een missie van ruim 260 uur.

J.L. Pickering & John Bisney Apollo 7 in Photographs review en recensie

Als er in de media een boekbespreking, recensie of review verschijnt van Apollo 7 in Photographs, het boek van J.L. Pickering en John Bisney en het tweede deel in de Apollo Photo Archive reeks, dan besteden we er op deze pagina aandacht aan.

J.L. Pickering & John Bisney Apollo 7 in Photographs

Apollo 7 in Photographs

The Apollo Photo Archive 2

  • Auteurs: J.L. Pickering, John Bisney (Verenigde Staten)
  • Soort boek: ruimtevaartboek, fotoboek
  • Taal: Engels
  • Uitgever: Schiffer Publishing
  • Verschijnt: 28 oktober 2025
  • Omvang: 336 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: gebonden boek
  • Prijs: $ 49,99
  • Boek bestellen bij: Amazon

J.L. Pickering & John Bisney Apollo 7 in Photographs review en recensie

Als er in de media een boekbespreking, recensie of review verschijnt van Apollo 7 in Photographs, het boek van J.L. Pickering en John Bisney en het tweede deel in de Apollo Photo Archive reeks, dan besteden we er op deze pagina aandacht aan.

Flaptekst van het boek over ruimtevaartuig Apollo 7

More than 700 images capture the history of the Apollo 7 mission, America’s triumphant return to manned spaceflight.

The Apollo Photo Archive series comprises the most comprehensive pictorial record of America’s moon-landing program ever published.

The series continues with Apollo 7’s launch in October 1968. Crewed by Wally Schirra, Donn Eisele, and Walt Cunningham, it was the first successful Apollo space flight. Less than two years after the Apollo 1 disaster in January 1967, the success of Apollo 7 helped redirect the course of the Apollo program and, therefore, space history.

Readers will enjoy more than 700 photos, which feature the arrival and assembly of the rocket and spacecraft, crew selection and training, preflight activities, mission countdown, launch, the flight itself, splashdown, and subsequent crew appearances and related activities.

J.L. Pickering & John Bisney Apollo 1 in Photographs reviewJ.L. Pickering & John Bisney – Apollo 1 in Photographs
The Apollo Photo Archive 1
ruimtevaartboek
Uitgever: Schiffer Publishing
Verschijnt: 28 oktober 2025

Bijpassende boeken

Amerikaanse geschiedenis, Psychiatrie, Slavernij

Diana Martha Louis – Colored Insane

Diana Martha Louis Colored Insane review, recensie en informatie boek over Slavernij, opvang en psychische aandoeningen in de negentiende eeuw. Op 28 oktober 2025 verschijnt bij Columbia University Press het boek van Diana Martha Louis, de assistent hoogleraar vrouwen- en genderstudies aan de Universiteit van Michigan. Er is geen Nederlandse vertaling van het boek verkrijgbaar.

Diana Martha Louis Colored Insane review en recensie

  • “Bringing together an impressive array of primary sources ranging from medical case studies and asylum records to literary fiction and nonfiction, Colored Insane offers a unique narrative that centers the perspectives of marginalized patients that have largely been absent from the established discourse on asylums.” (Michael Ra-shon Hall, author of Freedom Beyond Confinement)
  • “I couldn’t stop reading this book. Writing in a thrilling voice and centering Black knowledge-makers, Diana Louis uncovers countless surprises as she explores histories of Black mental disability. Her archival research and astute analysis respond to critical questions about “mental illness” and “disability” in the context of enslavement, freedom, and human experience itself. Colored Insane is necessary reading for anyone teaching, writing, and thinking about disability and Black histories.” (Margaret Price, author of Crip Spacetime)

Diana Martha Louis Colored Insane

Colored Insane

Slavery, Asylums, and Mental Illness in the Nineteenth Century

  • Auteur: Diana Martha Louis (Verenigde Staten0
  • Soort boek: geschiedenisboek
  • Taal: Engels
  • Uitgever: Columbia University Press
  • Verschijnt:28 oktober 2025
  • Omvang: 320 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: paperback / gebonden boek / ebook
  • Prijs: $ 35,00 / € 140,00
  • Boek bestellen bij: Amazon / Bol / Libris

Flaptekst van het boek over slavernij, opvang en psychische aandoeningen in de 19de eeuw

The nineteenth century in the United States witnessed the end of slavery and the expansion of another form of confinement: the asylum. How did enslaved and free Black people encounter psychiatric institutions? How were notions of mental disability used to reinforce slavery and Jim Crow? And how did Black people express alternative ideas about individual and communal mental health?

Diana Martha Louis explores Black experiences and views of mental disability in the nineteenth century, shedding light on the lives and struggles of the “colored insane.” She demonstrates how psychiatric discourses made Blacks “mad” both by inflicting real psychological harm within asylums, plantations, jails, and society writ large and by constructing mental disorders according to prevailing notions of race, class, gender, and sanity. Yet even as white medical professionals pathologized the enslaved as suffering from “drapetomania” (runaway slave syndrome), portrayed slavery as beneficial to Black mental health, or cast African-derived spiritual beliefs and practices as signs of madness, Black people developed their own complex perspectives on mental disability.

Louis considers the lives and writings of Black intellectuals and cultural figures including James McCune Smith, Harriet Jacobs, Harriet Tubman, and Charles Chesnutt, as well as a group of Black women who were incarcerated in Georgia Lunatic Asylum, showing how mental disability was entangled with questions of freedom, spirituality, and self-determination. Combining literary and historical analysis, Colored Insane is a rich account of nineteenth-century Black Americans’ experiences of mental illness and wellness.

Diana Martha Louis is an assistant professor of women’s and gender studies and American culture at the University of Michigan.

Bijpassende boeken